Valentine's Day 2021

Saint Valentine's Day, also known as Valentine's Day, is observed on February 14
each year. It is celebrated in many countries around the world.

St. Valentine's Day began as a liturgical celebration of one or more early
Christian saints named Valentinus. Very few facts are known about St.
Valentine. He was a priest in Rome who was martyred about AD 269 and buried on
the Via Flaminia (the road leading from Rome over the Apennine Mountains). The most
popular martyrology states that he was a priest near Rome in about the year 270
AD, a time when the church was enduring great persecution. His ministry was to
help the Christians to escape this persecution and to provide them the
sacraments, such as marriage. The Roman Emperor Claudius II supposedly forbade
marriages of soldiers to grow his army, believing that married men did
not make for good soldiers.

Contemporary Valentine's Day is connected mainly with romantic love. The
modern Valentine's Day customs developed in early modern England and spread in
the 19th century. The customs include sending cards, flowers, chocolates to
one's beloved. Paper Valentine cards became so popular in England in the early
19th century that they were assembled in factories.